| ||||||||||
BEGINNING OF A LEGACY
Felisha Legette-Jack was named the eighth head women's basketball coach at Indiana University on April 19, 2006, and has wasted little time, as she led the Hoosiers to back-to-back 18-plus win seasons and two trips to the postseason.
Legette-Jack and the Hoosiers rebounded off a year that began with a season-opening 7-1 mark, and reached even bigger heights in her second campaign.
Legette-Jack led the Hoosiers to a win over then-No. 13 West Virginia and key road wins over Purdue and Michigan State, IU's first win over the Spartans since 2002. The team's success under her leadership resulted in three players earning postseason awards, as Jamie Braun and Whitney Thomas earned Second and Third Team All-Big Ten honors, respectively, and Kim Roberson was named to the league's all-defensive squad.
The Hoosiers' success during the regular season sent them into the Big Ten Tournament as the six seed. Following a win in the first round, Legette-Jack and the Cream and Crimson headed back to the postseason when they hosted James Madison in the second round of the WNIT.
Indiana's memorable beginning of the Legette-Jack era, which included an upset of then-No. 15 Kentucky and the Women's Sports Foundation Classic tournament title, gained national attention with votes in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls. With the confidence from a successful 13-4 non-conference record, Indiana kept rolling as Legette-Jack and the Hoosiers recorded key Big Ten wins over Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, before knocking off Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament on March 1. IU's success in the Big Ten also gained the squad attention as the Hoosiers earned the honors of Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year in Jamie Braun and an All-Big Ten Third Team selection in Sarah McKay.
Legette-Jack and the Hoosiers' success during the regular season resulted in Indiana's second straight trip to the postseason. The Hoosiers defeated Iona in the second round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament, 74-71, in Assembly Hall on March 18. Despite falling in the third round of the WNIT, Indiana wrapped up the season with an overall mark of 19-14 and a record of 12-3 in Assembly Hall.
USA BASKETBALL
Before her arrival in Bloomington, Legette-Jack served on two USA Basketball gold medal-winning coaching staffs and guided Hofstra to one of its best seasons in school history in 2005-06. The Pride's 19 victories were the second-best in school history, and the 12 league triumphs tied a school record. The Pride's success in Legette-Jack's final season as head coach culminated into the program's first-ever trip to the WNIT. In addition to the team success, Hofstra ranked among the CAA's top three in scoring offense (second, 69.5 ppg), field goal percentage defense (.379), rebounding offense (second, 43.0), rebounding margin (third, +3.9), assists per game (second, 16.0), steals (second, 11.03), offensive rebounds (second, 16.73), defensive rebounds (second, 26.27) and three-point field goals per game (third, 5.37).
Legette-Jack played an instrumental role in helping USA Basketball to the 2005 FIBA U19 World Championship in Tunisia in 2006. Legette-Jack served as an assistant to Texas' Gail Goestenkors on a U.S. team that averaged 105.9 points per game and posted an impressive 46.3 point per game margin of victory. The U.S. team is just the third to finish the U19 World Championships undefeated, and it is the first team to post an 8-0 ledger.
AT HOFSTRA
In her first three years at Hofstra, Legette-Jack guided the Pride to the CAA Tournament quarterfinals each year, and she earned 2003-04 CAA Coach of the Year honors after Hofstra went 14-14 overall and 11-7 in the league. The 11 league victories marked the most for Hofstra in 10 years. Hofstra's 27 victories from 2003-05 were the most in consecutive years since Hofstra won 39 games from 1982-84.
Legette-Jack's 2003-04 season was memorable in more ways than one. In the summer of 2003, Legette-Jack assisted Ohio State coach Jim Foster with the gold medal-winning USA Basketball FIBA World Championship For Young Women Team in Sibenik, Croatia. That club featured the eventual top two picks of the 2006 WNBA Draft - LSU's Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx) and Rutgers' Cappie Pondexter (Phoenix Mercury).
BIG TEN EXPOSURE
Legette-Jack arrived at Hofstra after two years as an assistant to Joanne P. McCallie at Michigan State. Legette-Jack served as the Spartans' recruiting coordinator, supervised the team's academic progress, conditioning programs and helped sign the nation's 14th-best recruiting class in 2001-02. Legette-Jack helped orchestrate one of the nation's top turnarounds from 2000-01 to 2001-02. In 2000-01, MSU was 10-18 overall, but the Spartans responded by posting a 19-13 record in 2001-02, capped by a WNIT semifinal appearance. The 19 wins included three triumphs over nationally-ranked opponents. She recruited the nucleus of the Spartans' 2005 national finalist club.
Legette-Jack worked as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at her alma mater, Syracuse, from 1993-00. In addition to handling to team travel, tape exchange and overseeing the conditioning program,
Legette-Jack recruited two Gatorade Players of the Year to the Orange. Syracuse also boasted a 100 percent graduation rate during her tenure.
PRIDE OF THE ORANGE
A 1989 Syracuse graduate with a double major in child and family studies and psychology, Legette-Jack scored 1,526 points and grabbed 927 rebounds. Legette-Jack is the second-leading scorer and all-time leading rebounder in Syracuse history. She won 1985 BIG EAST Rookie of the Year honors and earned all-league laurels three times in her career. An inductee into the Greater Syracuse Hall of Fame, the Syracuse Urban League Hall of Fame and the Syracuse University Orange Plus Hall of Fame, Legette-Jack was one of 15 players named to the BIG EAST Conference Silver Anniversary Team in 2004.
After graduation from Syracuse, Legette-Jack became head girls basketball coach at Westhill High School in Syracuse. She posted a 26-13 ledger in two seasons there, and five of her players earned Division I scholarships. Legette-Jack then spent two years as an assistant coach at Boston College, where the Golden Eagles recorded a 100 percent graduation rate during her tenure.
PERSONAL
Born Sept. 4, 1966, in Syracuse, Legette-Jack and her husband, David, have an nine-year-old son, David Maceo.
